In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
In the same day the Lord made a covenant - [Hebrew, kaarat (H3772), cut; Greek, temnein spondas; Latin, icere foedus, to strike a league, in allusion to the cutting in pieces the sacrificial victim, and disposing them in the manner described.] It is deserving of notice that although the same promise, previously made to Abram in general terms, is recorded in Genesis 12:1-20 and Genesis 13:1-18, the revelation is not termed a covenant until it had been ratified by symbolical sacrifice. The word "covenant," however, is not to be taken here in the sense of a compact between two parties with mutual stipulations and conditions. It is rather to be considered a disposition (see the note at Genesis 9:9-11), because it was an act of grace on the part of God (hence called by the apostle "a promise," Galatians 3:18), though embraced, on the part of Abram, by faith.
Unto thy seed have I given this land. Here is Abram's charter, giving the right of inheritance of Canaan to the Israelites.
From the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates - [Hebrew, minªhar (H5104), from the river.] There are three conjectures concerning this river. The first is, that it is the little rivulet which flows into the sea a few miles south of Gaza; the second, that it is the Sihor, or torrent of Egypt, which passes El-Arish a little to the northeast, dividing the desert from the borders of the pasture-land; and the third, that it was the Pelusiac branch of the Nile. The first is too paltry and insignificant a stream to have any claims to notice in this connection. The El-Arish water being [nahal] a winter-torrent, liable to be dried up, whereas the water referred to was evidently perennial, is altogether inapplicable; and the conclusion therefore is, that the reference was to the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, Pelusium being from the earliest times the frontier town of Egypt. The descendants of Abram, in point of fact, never extended their possessions, even in the greatest height of their national prosperity, to the full extent of the boundaries here defined. But the land of promise, as contemplated in the divine purpose, was co-extensive with the limits specified, and the failure to realize the full accomplishment of the promise arose not from unfaithfulness on the part of God, but from the sinful apathy and disobedience of those to whom the promise was given, in not exterminating the pagan, who had forfeited the right to occupy the land (Exodus 23:31).